Download Techno City (right click and select “Save Link As…” or “Save Target As…”), or listen here:
0:00:22 808 State – Donkey Doctor
0:00:26 Sinistarr & Redeyes – Solar 9
0:01:56 Subwave – Road Rage
0:04:35 Subwave – 4th Illusion
0:06:39 Sinistarr – Mainstay
0:08:32 Cutworks – Spacecarft Tools
0:10:47 Joe Syntax – Nu Skool Reflex
0:12:28 Subwave – Senses
0:15:27 Marcus Intalex – Nebulus
0:18:03 Subwave – Ubik
0:20:17 Sinistarr – Detroit Diesel
0:23:49 Shimah – Swordfish
0:26:59 Cutworks – Terminal
0:29:12 Sinistarr – Golgo 13
0:31:47 Camo & Krooked – Portal (Subwave Remix)
0:34:00 Marcus Intalex – Steady
0:36:07 Pendulum – Vault (VIP Remix)
0:36:51 Marcus Intalex – Stark
0:39:48 Mistabishi – The Light’s Really Bad
0:42:00 Cyantific – 305
0:43:51 Marcus Intalex – Airbourne
0:45:41 Bladerunner – Time Trap
0:49:00 Shimah – Electro Step
0:50:50 Netsky – Iron Heart
0:51:34 Subwave – Stars Get Down
0:54:28 Marcus Intalex & S.P.Y – Celestial Navigation
0:58:28 S.P.Y – Moving In Circles
1:01:01 Intelligent Manners – I Won’t
1:06:50 Cybotron – Techno City
In the late 1980’s-early 1990’s, the type of music that we now associate with Drum & Bass used to be called many different things… Breakbeat Hardcore, Rave music, Bleep music, etc. It was also called Jungle Techno, but I didn’t hear an awful lot of “Detroit” in this early stuff. Fast forward to today, however, and music is finally being made that can quite literally be called “Jungle” and “Techno”.
Ever since the late 1990’s, techie-sounding styles of Drum & Bass have existed (e.g., Tech Step, Dark Step, etc.). A lot of the songs have been quite literally “drums” and “bass”, and very little else. Very industrial sounding. Mechanical. Minimal. Stripped down. No musicality. With the exception of a couple of songs (from artists like DJ Krust et al), I was never a fan. To me, this stuff just sounded boring!
In recent years, an updated “tech” style of Drum & Bass has begun to emerge, and although it has been plagued by the same deficiencies as its predecessors, there has been at least one good thing to come from it… There have been a dozen or so Drum & Bass songs that have been very Detroit Techno-sounding in nature. It’s almost as if the synths and sounds of classic Detroit Techno are purposefully being infused into some of these songs.
One of the artists that is featured a lot in the “Techno City” mix, Sinistarr (above), is native of Detroit. Over the last couple of years, Sinistarr has been making a name for himself in the Drum & Bass world with his signature “Detroit” sound and experimental style of production.
I heard my first Sinistarr song a few years ago on Fabio & Grooverider‘s old show on BBC Radio 1, but it took me until now to compile enough songs for a potential mix. And although I have had some of these songs for a couple of years now, it wasn’t until 2012 that I began to connect the dots and realize that there was a common “theme” running throughout some of these songs.
The last that I ever wanted to do was make yet another mix, but I felt that I had to because, a.) these songs are few and far between and are easily lost in the shuffle amongst all of the other thousands of songs in my library, and b.) I have the attention span of a 6 year old boy with ADHD and can’t listen to anything for more than 2-3 minutes! So to give these songs the proper listening and attention that they deserve, I decided to make “Techno City”.
Since finishing the mix back in May 2012, I’ve come across some a couple more songs fit this style, but since I don’t want to make another mix, I’ll just include them in a Bonus Pack (along with the songs that didn’t make the final cut for “Techno City”):
Download Techno City Bonus Pack (Unmixed)
• A Surgeon – Flexin’
• DJ Chap – Cybernetics
• Enei – I Don’t Know
• Jaybee & Sinistarr – Should I
• Joe Syntax – Sensory
• Kiat – Men In White
• Lethal – Tech-No-Step
• Lung – Rollerball
• Makoto & Danny Wheeler – Universe
• Marcus Intalex – Skizm
• Sinistarr – Bear The Mark
• Soul Intent – The Right Moves